Raspberry Pi Coding Contest Won By Time-Lapse Camera

12-year-old Aaron Hill has taken first prize in the Raspberry Pi summer coding contest for youngsters for his software that turns the computer into a time-lapse camera.

PySnap allows users to attach a USB camera to the tiny computer and decide upon an interval for it to take pictures. The pictures it takes can then be used to form a time-lapse album.

Aaron won first prize in the under 13s category and was rewarded with $1000 (£627) for his efforts. Ashley Newson took first place in the 14-18 category for his SmartSim software. The 17-year-old’s programme allows user to design circuits using the Raspberry Pi and also took home the £627 prize money.

In addition, there were two runners up in each age bracket. The under 13 runners up were SerPrint by 11-year-old Louis Goessling, a programme that makes it easier to control more devices using the Pi, and The Matrix, a text-based world simulator by 12-year-old Conner Foxley. The runners up in the 14-18 category were Neutron Craft, a StarCraft-like game by 18-year-old Bradley Pollard; Pancake, a web server by 15-year-old Yussuf Khalil; BerryBox, a file synchroniser by 17-year-old Hannes Westman and RasPod, a music player by 17-year-old Aneesh Dogra. Runners up were awarded $200 (£125) in prize money.

The coding competition ran for two months and was run by the Raspberry Pi Foundation with the aim of finding and encouraging the best young programmers working with the computer. The Raspberry Pi Foundation plans on running regular competitions in the future.

Since its release earlier this year, the Raspberry Pi has been incredibly successful. The bare-bones computer costs just £16 and, despite being the size of a credit card, is fully functional. It was designed as an affordable way to encourage youngsters and amateur programmers to hone their coding skills.
Raspberry Pi community manager Liz Upton said she was “blown away” by the results. Writing on the company’s official blog she said: “there were so many excellent entries.”